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Fete de Temps
The Fete de Temps or "Feast of Timing," or the Poisoners' Ball, is more a test than a meal. The Fete de Temps is traditionally offered in the Pintari Mageocracy to welcome prospective business partners and suitors. The feast is 8-10 courses in length. It is a combination of foods and spices that, when consumed at the wrong time or in the wrong pattern may poison the eater. When eaten correctly, the tastes are sublime--some meals are even said to imbue the eater with poison resistance or magical gifts. Summary The Pintari culture is hierarchical; unforgiving of failure or overreach. Only members of within the same class may conduct business or marry. The Fete de Temps tests the pedigree of the guest or guests. A guest who survives is welcomed within the mage's family. The Feast originates in the founding of the Pintari state. The Pintari began as an exiled people, surviving only in the vast jungle ranges of Pintara. The jungles held many poisonous creatures and plants. But the shrewdest, most observant, and tenacious of the Pintari mages learned the jungle's secrets: food and meat could be had from the forest if one followed precise rules.1 Although the Pintari Mageocracy is now a modern state with safer food supplies, traditional meals remain within the aristocracy. Each ranking family trains its sons and daughters in the preparation and eating of the Fete de Temps. Courses # La Exponer: "Exposer" Anywhere between 2-5 glasses per guest of an effervescent alcoholic beverage made from Choke Fruit. One glass is a delicious, safe drink. The others are poisoned to various degrees. # Kholod Garde "Cold Guard" Is an appetizer salad of Limes Infernes set in an aspic of lemur, on top of a tray of ice shavings (exorbitantly expensive). The chilled aspic controls the flammability of the preserved limes. The eater must time the eating of the salad carefully or the limes, rich in volatile oils, set on fire. # Potum Iocum. "Joke Pot" a soup of jungle meats that can be of any combination, served in individual, covered pots. (The eater may ask any indirect question of the server to identify the contents. Less than three questions is considered good etiquette). Depending on the deviousness of the host, this dish can embarrass or kill the guest. # Pesca Baila "Dancing Fish" This is live, electric eel, stunned by the toxin of the Little Poison Weeper frog. Each guest must serve himself a portion of the eel, cutting with a metal knife and fork. # Sharbat Maet. "The Helpless Drink" (sometimes, "Black Death") Meant as a palate cleanser, the drink is served in a chilled crystal glass. Sharbat is black in color, completely opaque. Swimming in the liquid are pieces of candied Gallseed and live Sangr Shrimps. The drinker must consume each in the correct order, or suffer bloody embarrassment. # Salata de Espadas "Salad of Swords" So named for the agony of the incorrect consumption of this innocuous looking dish. The salad is composed of salted Coil Ferns bathed with oil and herbs. They look like tiny lettuce heads. If eaten with the wrong portion of spices the fern uncoils, stabbing the eater in the mouth; or more fatally, the throat. # Come' Provocar "the Provocation" Traditionally the first of two main courses. It is made with Night Fungus and Leper Monke y. The eater must carefully balance the consumption of the two main ingredients. Failure to do so results in immediate, frothing, raging insanity (from the Night Fungus), or a later horrific, debilitating illness (from the Leper Monkey). # Come' Pugna "the Combat" The final main course, is the most complex dish of the evening, designed to defeat all but the most discerning of eaters. Each Pintari house creates a different secret dish based around rare, poisonous jungle beasts. It is rumored the wealthiest of houses include flesh of men, dwarf, fey (all poisoned), even dragon (naturally poisonous) in the dish. It is also the only dish wherein the cook may include ingredients from outside of the jungles. # Dulce Paz "Sweet Peace" The dessert course. A sculptured confection of giant wasp venom and Sleeping Orchid nectar surrounded by a pattern of granulated spices. The guest must take a selection of spices while eating the dish, in order not to die. # Fume' Blanc "the White Smoke" The final course of the meal. Guests are served a small brazier of coals , boxes of smoking herbs, and a pipe. Each brazier contains a toxic jungle hardwood. The user must combine the right amount of herbs to coals in order to have a satisfying smoke. Failure results in "red smoke," caustic, blinding agony for the ill-prepared guest. In addition, the host may choose to serve "truccia" between courses. Truccia, or "Truces" are un-poisoned treats to cleanse the palate. They are made of more humble ingredients, toasted corn with salt, a barley crisp, minted greens; meant to symbolize the servile status of the lesser people of the Pintari nation. They also provide an opportunity for a bride to help her prospective suitor with coded messages in the presentation, or an antidote for the next course. Cheating the Fete Fete de Temps are held in noble's homes. They are served in magically-warded halls on warded dishes. The test is of the guest's ability to observe, not the price of his magical items. A guest may risk his name and that of his family by attempting to cheat with magic. It is considered a grave breach of etiquette. It is rumored that one offended family made new plates; grinding the bones of a prospective suitor who cheated the Fete, into a fine china. Variations The Fete de Demps can have many variations, from number of courses to main ingredients. The only consistent theme is the use of food indigenous to the Pintari Jungles. Comments "If I might offer any suitor some perspicacious advice: bring a steady Body Man to the Fete. If you die or are incapacitated in another mage's house, your body is his--unless your body man claims you." --Ben Abd Zihr, Headman of the Antrassoma "It is a meal of legend: The Orphan's Ball. A prospective bride who despised all her suitors, and her parents most of all, designed a Fete so devious that it killed all of the guests as well as her father, the host." --The Unspoken Tales "One of the families lays claim to an infamous distinction: having never killed a guest at a Fete. It is rumored the house servants, mindless and mute, are all former suitors." --Travels of Effezius Vol. IIIV Notes 1. Little Poison Weeper frogs were edible during their mating season. Choke Fruit and Widows Comb mushrooms could be cooked together to cancel their toxins for a few precious moments. Even hated Leper monkeys were edible, if burned, salted, and buried in the ground for two days. Category:Food and Drink